30/03/2021
ISLAND LIVING
(Episode 20 – Liberation!)
“Are you a front liner?
I took me 48 hours to realize that maybe I should have said something else.
Usually when you meet a stranger, the first exchanges are usually questions…trying to get some ‘connection’.
It’s not very comforting, when you are merely a meter away, face to face….seconds of silence feels like eternity.
So you can be forgiven for saying something….otherwise
You arrived home thinking to yourself.
“Why the hell did I say that”?
“Or, I should have said this”!
I got my first COVID 19 shot (AstraZeneca) 6 days ago in a hall converted into a ‘medical facility’ that looks more like coming out from a sci-fi movie.
Everything is religiously designed ….and bleaching white!
It was reported (international media) that some COVID 19 cases, who woke up from a coma – regretted being ‘waken up’.
As your eyes opens up to the reality world, your mind was thinking, “Who the hell brought me here? I want to return to paradise”.
So here I am, slightly nervous, as I made my way through the barrage of ‘stations’ manned by one to two (or sometimes three) personals.
Questions, then paper works, then some more questions, and suddenly you find yourself in a large building containing room block, with dormitory beds.
Along the hall are chairs in front of the rooms, manned by uniformed personals with hardly any facial expression, or if anything…a weak smile!
“Where I’m I”?
It’s actually the newly build COVID Facility (converted from a hall) that for some reasons reminds me of the COVID hospitals that popped out of nowhere in Wuhan in early 2020.
After getting my shot I was facing this other guy who just received a shot minutes before me, and we were basically staring at each other, at the wall and floor, not knowing what to say.
Whatever is in our heads, definitely, there is some element of fear – staring into each other’s fears!
But there is also the set-up, the staff and standard of professionalism in the facility that gave me confidence.
To ease the tension, I decided to crack some conversation with the roommate stranger
Who of all things asked me if I am a front liner?
Somehow I told him ‘I am somewhere behind the front liner’…I hope that make sense.
He basically shook his head….more like confusion.
Everything goes well and I find myself on my way back to my office
Whether it is the dusty road, I knew that I am not all that well – feeling warm, body aches and headaches that went through the night.
I had a disrupted sleep may be because I was thinking I could die the next minute.
“What could happen to me right now”?
“I am I going to collapse and die”?
“I decided not to read anything about vaccine anymore, it’s pointless”.
The next day I was 100 percent
“What a great relief”
You know what it feels like?
“Liberation”
So what is the answer to if I am a front liner or not?
The answer does not matter anymore….
It’s about protecting the community – who could be your brother, mother, aunt or even you child or even yourself.
As a medical professional what could be more dutiful than that?
